China develops automated high-speed trains: newspaper

The country's high-speed rail service is the world's leader as the era of automated high-speed trains approaches, with core technologies and products all domestically made, the newspaper cited Lu Dongfu, general manager of China Railway Corp. (CRC), as saying.

Tests of an automated high-speed system were carried out successfully on railways linking Beijing and Shenyang, Liaoning Province, from July to September, with total trial mileage of more than 186,000 km, according to the paper.

The system will be put into operation in 2022 on the railway line that will link Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, host cities of the 2022 Winter Olympics, with a designed speed up to 350 km per hour, the report said.

The CRC already put automatic operation systems in the Dongguan-Huizhou and Foshan-Zhaoqing inter-city railways in Guangdong Province, with speeds of 200 kph -- a first worldwide, the Science and Technology Daily quoted an expert from the China Academy of Railway Sciences Corp. as saying.

Using the system, the train can automatically start, run between stations, adjust its timing according to the schedule, accurately stop at a station, and open and its doors, which increases operating efficiency and avoids congestion, delays and accidents, the expert said.